Politics
Hunter Biden's criminal tax trial begins with jury selection in California
Jury selection in Hunter Biden’s criminal tax trial stemming from special counsel David Weiss’ yearslong investigation into the first son begins Thursday in California.
United States District Court for the Central District of California Judge Mark Scarsi is presiding over the trial.
Biden’s tax trial was set to begin in June, but his attorneys requested it be delayed to September, and Scarsi approved that request.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS REFER HUNTER BIDEN, JAMES BIDEN FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
Weiss charged Hunter Biden with three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning $1.4 million in owed taxes that have since been paid. Weiss alleged a “four-year scheme” when the president’s son did not pay his federal income taxes while also filing false tax reports.
Biden pleaded not guilty.
In the indictment, Weiss alleged that Biden “engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020.”
Weiss said that, in “furtherance of that scheme,” Biden “subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions” from the company “outside of the payroll and tax withholding process that it was designed to perform.”
HUNTER BIDEN TAX TRIAL POSTPONED TO SEPTEMBER
The special counsel alleged that Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” and that in 2018, he “stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015.”
Weiss alleged that Biden “willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes,” and that he “willfully failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns on time.”
This is the second time Biden is on trial this year stemming from charges out of Weiss’ investigation.
Biden was found guilty on all counts in Delaware after Weiss charged him with making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm; making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a licensed firearm dealer; and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
A date has not yet been set for sentencing for those charges. With all counts combined, the total maximum prison time for the charges could be up to 25 years. Each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.
President Biden has vowed not to pardon his son.
Jury selection in California is expected to take place Thursday and Friday. Weiss and Biden’s defense attorneys are expected to deliver their opening arguments the following Monday.
Politics
Judge orders deportation of 'migrant influencer' who bragged about handouts, encouraged squatting: report
The illegal migrant from Venezuela who went viral on social media for mocking America and encouraging squatting has been ordered to leave the U.S., according to an exclusive report by the New York Post.
Homeland Security sources told the Post that an Ohio-based judge ordered Leonel Moreno, 27, to be deported from the country on September 9.
Moreno was initially arrested in March for not showing up to required check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He had illegally crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, on April 23, 2022.
Whether or not Moreno will actually be deported is up in the air, according to the Post. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s administration recently stopped accepting flights of migrants, complicating the deportation process.
VENEZUELAN ‘MIGRANT INFLUENCER’ WHO ENCOURAGED SQUATTING UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR GUN CHARGES: REPORT
Moreno became infamous earlier in 2024 because of his inflammatory TikTok videos. In one clip, he flaunted a stack of cash and bragged about not working. He also also made fun of migrants who work in landscaping, construction and cleaning.
“I didn’t cross the Rio Grande to work like a slave,” Moreno reportedly said in Spanish. “I came to the U.S. to mark my territory.”
Moreno also claimed that he made $1,000 a week on TikTok, in addition to his family being given $350 a week in government handouts. He also encouraged fellow migrants to squat in abandoned homes, according to TikTok screenshots.
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After his TikTok account – which amassed over half a million followers – was removed earlier this year, Moreno bragged about the amount of money he earned on Facebook and Instagram.
“Yes, they closed my TikTok account, but I keep earning on Facebook and on Instagram,” the migrant reportedly said in Spanish. “I won’t earn the same, but I am going to get my TikTok account back. I am going to keep earning money.”
Fox News Digital reached out to ICE for additional information.
Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price contributed to this report.
Politics
Video: Video Shows Arrest of Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt
new video loaded: Video Shows Arrest of Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt
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transcript
Video Shows Arrest of Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office released body camera footage of the arrest of Ryan Wesley Routh, the man suspected of trying to kill the former president at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla.
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“Driver, take two steps to your right. Take two steps to your right.” “Come back.” “Driver — walk straight back. Keep walking.”
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Politics
Michigan Republicans continue to spar with Dems over deal with Chinese EV company in key House race
The race for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District is generating national attention as Republicans attempt to tie their Democratic opponent to a controversial deal with a Chinese Communist Party-backed company.
Michigan Republicans are calling on former Democratic State Sen. Curtis Hertel, who is currently running to represent Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, to break his silence on a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) he signed in order to obtain details on controversial plans to use taxpayer funds to help build an electric vehicle battery plant in west Michigan owned by a company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The plant, which was announced by Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2022, was set to get millions in incentives as part of a deal with Michigan lawmakers and Green Charter Township, with promises of bringing over 2,000 jobs to the area.
But the project quickly drew the ire of local voters, in large part due to the company behind the plant, Gotion Inc., being a subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, which has strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
CCP-BACKED TECH COMPANIES ARE POISED TO CASH IN ON BIDEN’S CLIMATE BILL, NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERTS WARN
Last fall, local voters ousted five of the seven township board members over their support of the project, while the other two members resigned.
That controversy has now bled over into the race for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, one of the few true toss-up House races in the state, thanks to Hertel being one of several lawmakers from both parties to sign the NDA with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation that allowed them to learn about and negotiate details on the proposed plans for the plant.
Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is vacating her seat in Michigan’s 7th District to pursue a run for U.S. Senate, recently spoke out against the Gotion deal, further intensifying calls on Hertel to do the same.
“To me, until there’s a national security vetting, I don’t love the idea of moving forward on any project or any sale of farmland” to a Chinese entity, Slotkin told reporters at a campaign event earlier this month. “I believe that we need to not just think about economic [aspects], but also about the national security implications of Chinese-affiliated companies.”
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“Hertel must answer whether or not he agrees with his comrade pal Elissa Slotkin, and if he regrets signing the NDA to sell out Michigan taxpayers to the CCP,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella.
The controversy over the plant has also garnered attention in the presidential race, with former President Donald Trump saying on Truth social last month that he is “100% OPPOSED” to the plant, adding that Gotion “would put Michiganders under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.”
Meanwhile, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, highlighted the controversy during a campaign stop in Michigan last week.
“I think the most important thing is we have to stop paying Chinese manufacturers to manufacture, whether it’s here or overseas,” Vance told reporters in Michigan after his speech. “We want to build an American manufacturing industry and an American middle class. If we want to pursue these policies, let’s do them for Americans and American businesses.”
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But questions over Hertel’s involvement in the project continue to be the focus of Michigan Republicans, most notably after it was reported last year that Hertel was on of several Democratic lawmakers in the state to receive funds from a Political Action Committee (PAC) linked to the law office of Warner Norcross + Judd, a firm acting as a foreign agent to represent Gotion.
According to a Fox News report last September, the firm’s PAC donated $2,400 to the state campaign for Hertel, who represented Michigan’s 23rd State Senate district from 2015 until January.
One lawmaker who did not sign an NDA related to the project is former Republican State Sen. Tom Barrett, Hertel’s opponent in the race for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District. Barrett has also seized on the controversy, arguing Hertel owes people an explanation for his involvement with the project.
“Curtis Hertel, a 22-year career politician, owes the people of Mid-Michigan an explanation as to why he signed a secret NDA to give $175 million of their tax dollars to a CCP-backed company,” Barrett told Fox News Digital. “The fact that he took money from foreign agents on behalf of Gotion should disqualify him from Congress.”
Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Hertel campaign communications director Sam Kwait-Spitzer dismissed the claims by Republicans as a “false attack.”
“Curtis signed no NDA with Gotion, and Tom Barrett is trying to cover for his own record of voting against 5,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs here in Mid-Michigan and trying to cede the future of the auto industry to China,” he said.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
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